La Volta a Catalunya

La Volta a Catalunya es una de las carreras más viejas en el UCI WorldTour, y es por esta razón tiene un premio de 100 puntos de la UCI.  Es una carrera de una semana con siete etapas, incluyendo  dos etapas montañosas, cuatro etapas onduladas y una etapa llana, que esto año comprendió 1687,9 kilómetros por todas partes de la región de Cataluña.

La primera etapa era una etapa ondulada en que cinco corredores se escaparon después de la primera hora.   Michael Albasini (GreenEDGE), Ben Gastauer (AG2R La Mondiale), Timothy Duggan (Liquigas-Cannondale), Nicolas Edet (Cofidis) y Anthony Delaplace (Saur Sojasun) decidieron hacer su propia suerte y crearon una renta que logró 6:05 minutos.  Unos 25 kilómetros del final Albasini se escapó de la escapa, disolviendo la escapa, y acabó la etapa 42 segundos por delante de Anthony Delaplace, el corredor más próxima.

Albasini comenzó la segunda etapa en el jersey blanco de líder.  En una etapa montañosa, había unas escapas durante la etapa, pero el británico Bradley Wiggins trabajaba para su compañero Rigoberto Uran, y no permitió una escapa a ganar.  A causa de esto la etapa se terminó en un sprint, sin embargo porque era una etapa montañosa, la mayoridad del corredores en el primer grupo no podían hacer el sprint muy bien, y el puncheur Albasini podía ganar la llegada masiva también.  Como ganador de dos etapas, Albasini sigue líder por comenzar la etapa siguiente en La Vall d'en Bas (Sant Esteve d'en Bas).

La tercera etapa se hubo la etapa decisiva, en un giro de destino.  El tiempo estaba horrible – cinco corredores no empezaron la etapa, 34 de los abandonaron durante el día y la etapa estuvo acortó a causa de la nieve en la ruta y terminó por delante de las montañas grandes.  Una etapa montañosa difícil se volvió más fácil – una etapa que era posible por cualquiera ganar.  A pesar del tiempo, una escapa de 12 corredores dejó del pelotón al principio de la primera subida.  Nueve de estos corredores se acercaron a la meta después de 155 kilómetros, Janez Brajkovic del equipo Astana ganó la etapa.  Los comisarios decidieron que los tiempos del día no contribuyeron a los tiempos de la clasificación general, así Michael Albasini retuvo el jersey de líder por otro día.

Una etapa llena, la cuarta etapa de la Volta a Catalunya tuvo una escapa otra vez.  Tres corredores salieron del pelotón temprano, y un grupo de persecución de 25 corredores los siguió y los cogió en el alto.  Estos 25 corredores terminaron la etapa en grupo, y estaba el colombiano Rigoberto Uran (Sky) ganó el premio de la etapa por delante de Denis Menchov de Katusha y Sylvester Smyzd de Liquigas-Cannondale.  Albasini, el líder del equipo GreenEDGE, terminó en el grupo de 25 para llevar el jersey por otro día.

La quinta etapa era la etapa más larga de la carrera, 207,1 kilómetros de las carreras.  Seis corredores crearon una escapa, pero no podían mantener su renta de siete minutos, un grupo incluyendo todos los favoritos la cogió en el último alto.  El americano Levi Leipheimer condujo esto grupo a una llegada masiva, en que  el velocista francés Julien Simon (FDJ-Bigmat) venció a los ganadores del día anterior, Rigoberto Uran y Sylvester Smyzd.  Albasini terminó otra vez con los líderes y retuvo su jersey todavía.

La penúltima etapa no era muy emocionante, el pelotón se quedó junto hasta la meta de la carrera.  Un kilómetro de la meta, el español Samuel Sanchez (Euskaltel-Euskadi)  se lanzó del pelotón en el último alto y ganó la etapa fácilmente.  El australiano Allan Davis, del equipo GreenEDGE, venció a los otros corredores para terminar segundo.  Su compañero Michael Albasini terminó en el pelotón y comenzó la última etapa en su jersey blanco.

Una etapa corta, la séptima y final etapa fue el partido de desempate para la carrera.  Nueve corredores salieron del pelotón en el sexto kilómetro de la carrera y mantuvo su renta por 70 kilómetros.  Después de esto, unos corredores intentaron escapar, pero no podían.  Todos los corredores se quedaron juntos en una otra llegada masiva, la que ganó Julien Simon por segunda vez.  A causa de la llegada masiva, Albasini mantuvo su renta de un minuto y medio en la clasificación general y se adjudicó la carrera entera, que se deleitó.  Chris Anker Sorenson del equipo Saxobank ganó la clasificación montaña, mientras Tomasz Marczynski (Vacansoleil-DCM) era el mayor velocista. Es un buen resultado para el nuevo equipo australiano, que ganó 100 puntos UCI como resultado de la victoria de Albasini.

Foto gracias a GreenEDGE Cycling a http://www.greenedgecycling.com/

Green Teams

When Team Sky first started in 2010, they had a bad run of it. Wet behind the ears, they struggled to achieve any note-worthy results in their first year as a pro team and finished 15th as a team. In their second year pro, Brad Wiggins stepped up as a serious GC contender in multiple races, with riders like Geraint Thomas and Edvald Boasson Hagen vying for Tour de France white and stage wins on the side. This year Wiggins looks set to become Cadel Evans' main rival for the Tour de France title, while Thomas and Boasson Hagen each look equally dangerous in their respective fields. So it's safe to say that the team had something of a slow but steady learning curve. Now there's another new team on the block, but the only thing green about this team is their name and their jersey.

GreenEDGE didn't exactly have the hopes of the world resting on its shoulders in this, its first season. The first big race of the year was the national championships, but with GreenEDGE having signed about half of the pro Australian riders it was unsurprising that GreenEDGE's Simon Gerrans took out the national road title, with young track star Luke Durbridge taking out the time trial crown. A few weeks later came the first of the UCI Tours for the year, the home race Tour Down Under, and there was not so much an expectation that the team would win as pressure to do so - which they did. Simon Gerrans, fresh from the nationals, pulled on the ochre jersey following the race's queen stage and held it throughout the final crit.

A brief stop at the Tour of Qatar, where GreenEDGE managed a top-10 finish with Lithuanian Aidis Kruopis, and then it was off to Europe, where the Aussies really began turning heads. The team split up to ride the stage races of Paris-Nice and Tirreno-Adriatico, where Gerro opened the team's Europe account with a second place on stage three of Paris-Nice. The following day it was the Tirreno-Adriatico team's turn to hold the cycling world's attention. The boys blitzed the time trial - impressive when you consider they'd only trained for it together once - but more impressive was the 17-second lead they had to Garmin-Barracuda and Radioshack-Nissan-Trek and the 23-second lead over fourth-placed Team Sky, the three teams which, with BMC, dominated the Tour de France time trial last year. GreenEDGE was ecstatic. The neo team from one of Britain's colonies had made them look like they couldn't find their socks in time.

But it was about to get better. The defending champion of Italian monument Milano-San Remo was GreenEDGE's Matt Goss, and the team were wondering if Gossie could go one-two. Instead the team went one better. Not having the legs himself, Gossie handed his title over to teammate, Gerro of the impeccable form. The team car exploded with DS Matt White's excitement.

However even Milano-San Remo seemed to be nothing more than a high-class warmup for the neopro team. Eight riders, led by Allan Davis and Michael Albasini, headed off to Spain for the Volta a Catalunya, while the rest of the team headed off to train for other upcoming races such as E3-Harelbeke and Gent-Wevelgem. The GreenEDGE fans in the southern hemisphere woke to good news the next morning - Michael Albasini had grown some wings overnight and taken out the first stage of the Volta. Clearly one wasn't enough for him, because Albasini went back-to-back and took out the second stage as well. With a two-stage lead, the GC suddenly looked defensible, so the team went for it - and got it. +100 points in the team kitty. Then the team decided to up the ante a notch. Instead of a one-two win on stages, Daryl Impey and Allan Davis went one-two on the second stage of the Vuelta al Pais Vasco and left the other teams fighting for third place.

It isn't just the men's team either. GreenEDGE also established a women's team at the same time as building a ProTour men's team, and the girls have also made a name for themselves rather quickly too. For a new team they've certainly won their share of races, especially the WorldTour ones, and it's fair to say that GreenEDGE have shown their critics why they were awarded a ProTour licence in their first year out of the stables. They certainly haven't shown any signs of stopping, either.

The Contador Controversy

For some reason, it was only announced during September of 2010, during the International Cycling Union (UCI) Road World Championships, that Alberto Contador had tested positive to a small amount of clenbuterol in his bloodstream on the second rest day of the 2010 Tour de France. Clenbuterol is a bronchodilator, meaning it makes breathing easier and thus increases the amount of oxygen in the body and stimulates the central nervous system, which has earned the drug a place on the UCI's banned list. Contador’s explanation as to why he and some of his teammates tested positive was that they consumed steaks contaminated with clenbuterol that were provided by a friend.

This wouldn’t be the first time in sport that contaminated food has caused athletes to test positive for clenbuterol.  109 soccer players tested positive in the 2011 Under 17 World Cup in Mexico after eating Mexican meat, which can contain the drug.  Cyclists in the 2011 Tour of Beijing were advised by their directeurs sportifs to avoid eating beef or pork whilst in China, as clenbuterol is commonly fed to cows and pigs there.  Instead riders were advised to stick to chicken and fish, which cannot contain clenbuterol, to avoid the scenario in which Contador found himself.  It’s also worth noting that the amount of clenbuterol found in his system was 40 times less than the minimum detectable amount of the World Anti-Doping Agency labs and was only picked up when the samples were sent to a lab in Switzerland that specialises in detecting minute traces of drugs.

Considering it was the most high-profile case in cycling for its entire duration, the Contador controversy took way too long to be resolved.  Contador’s positive test occurred on July 21^st, 2010, but was only publicly announced on September 30^th, well after the Tour de France concluded.  The case was first heard in February 2011 by the Spanish Cycling Federation (RFEC), who accepted Contador’s explanation of contaminated meat and cleared him of doping charges.  The following month both the UCI and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) announced their intention to appeal the decision to CAS, which announced it would resolve the case before the 2011 Tour de France.  Needless to say, this didn’t happen, and Contador lined up for the 2011 Tour amidst a storm of conjecture.  The hearing finally took place in November, and a verdict was originally due in mid-January, until the composition of the CAS arbitration panel was called into question, delaying the verdict.  Finally on February 6^th 2012, the arbitration panel issue being resolved, the decision was finally handed down.

So why did Contador’s case take so long to be resolved?  His was not the only doping case of late, or even the only high-profile one or scandalous one.  12-time French female national champion Jeannie Longo missed the critical third random doping test in 18 months and was lucky to avoid the mandatory two-year suspension after she was acquitted on a technicality – the anti-doping authorities failed to inform Longo that she was still eligible for out-of-race testing.  Danish rider Alex Rasmussen was even luckier – the UCI failed to inform Rasmussen of his third infringement within the required 14 days, thus jeopardising their own case against him.  Each of these cases was resolved within seven months of the final infringement taking place.  Yet Contador’s case lasted from July 21^st, 2010, when he tested positive, until February 6^th this year, when the final decision was handed down – a total time of over 18 months.

Despite her husband and trainer being investigated for the procurement of a banned substance, there was no evidence in her case to suggest Longo was actually guilty of doping, nor for Rasmussen, and given the circumstances, it seems unlikely that Contador was intentionally doing so either.  Regardless, CAS handed down the standard sentence for a positive doping test – a two-year suspension from the sport, which was backdated to January 25^th, 2011.  Under this sentence, Contador will not only lose his 2010 Tour de France title, but also any other titles won between January 25^th, 2011 and February 6^th, 2012, including the 2011 Giro d’Italia and his 5^th place in the 2011 Tour de France.  The suspension won’t be lifted until January 25^th, 2013, meaning that Contador will be ineligible for not only the 2012 Tour de France but also the 2012 London Olympics – a harsh sanction overall.

It’s made even worse by the fact that Contador is now fully aware of what he is losing, given the races and jerseys he has won since the 2010 Tour.  Had the issue been dealt with directly after the Tour, in the same fashion as Longo and Rasmussen, Contador would merely have lost the chance to earn the titles, and might even have been eligible to race in time for the Olympics.  Instead Contador has to watch as 18 months of hard work and training goes down the drain, the only light at the end of the tunnel being that due to the backdating less than half his suspension remains to be served.  For the 28-year-old who just a few years ago was cycling’s golden boy, he certainly got the raw end of the deal this time.